Posted by
Patrick Henry on Wednesday, April 20, 2011 2:03:03 PM
Barack Obama's approval rating is sinking in the polls like a stone. Yesterday's Marist poll,
heavily weighted toward Democrats, showed that only 37% would vote to re-elect him. The
economy continues to flail, gas is at $4 a gallon, food prices are going through the roof, there
is no immediate solution to the debt and deficit problems, the ObamaCare fiasco hangs like a
dead albatross around the president's neck, current foreign policy resembles a wounded craw-
daddy and the administration continues clinging to a "green energy" policy that is 2% maybe
and 98% pure wishful thinking. The president is doing his dead level best to pull a Jimmy
Carter, yet no Republican can break 50% in the polls against him. So what's the problem?
To begin with, conservative and moderate voters are having trouble identifying the enemy.
All the bickering about the social issues, and the debates about candidates being "too bland,"
or "too outrageous" will be moot if they divide an electorate that should be single-mindedly
focused on getting rid of an incumbent president who holds the Constitution in contempt,
regularly bypasses congressional oversight and enacts policies he knows to be offensive to
a majority of voters. If your goal as a prospective voter is to ridicule Sarah Palin or Donald
Trump, then you are missing the point. For all of the failings of Bush and Carter, Obama is
the most dangerous man ever to sit in the Oval Office. He has done more damage to America
in the first half of a single term than any of his predecessors did in two. He has to go, and
the only way that will happen is if those of us who see him for what he is keep our eye on the
ball and come behind whichever candidate emerges from the Republican pack as the eventual
nominee. Virtually anybody would be better than Obama, and the polls suggest that most
Americans have figured that out. The question is one of whether they are going to set aside
personal preferences and petty arguments to do something about it. Democrats are betting
and hoping that they can't.
And so far, no Republican has taken command of the stage. The closest pretender is Donald
Trump, who is experienced at taking center stage and making money, if at little else. The
GOP candidates seem confused about how one ascends to presidential credibility. It has
very little to do with who can shout the loudest at Obama's transgressions, and much more
to do with an ability to seize a set of issues really pivotal to the Electorate. (Hint: how to
re-start the economy, how to effectively deal with debt and deficit, how to extract our
military from tedious, resource-sapping foreign entanglements, how to make the nation
really secure and how to forcefully and fairly resolve the problem of illegal immigration).
You don't beat Obama by pointing out how bad he is. Most people already get that. You
do it by trotting out your "better mousetrap" and letting informed voters make their own
decision. To win the election, you have to provide clear and genuine alternatives, and
focus on the issues that are most important to most people.
A characteristic that may define the election is courage. Candidates who form "exploratory
committees," and stick one toe in a tepid pool to "test the waters" simply to don't inspire in
the same way as those who stand up and declare candidacy outright and that they are in it
to win it. In other words, why should I care about how good your ideas may be if I'm not
convinced that you will definitely run and have a strategy to win? The stands are full of
"Monday morning quarterbacks," and timid souls who might do something, someday, maybe.
If you don't believe that you have compelling answers to real problems and if, eighteen
months from the election, you haven't done a whole lot to line up your financing, secure your
base and organize your campaign, why should you expect voters to jump on your belated
bandwagon? Too many Republicans are playing a game of striptease with the voters. Maybe
I will, but then maybe I won't. Stay tuned. Obama can definitely be beaten. He is ripe for
the plucking. But he won't be defeated by an eleventh hour sneak attack from the rear. He
has to be faced down, and that will only happen when a confident candidate with the courage
to lose as well as the intent to win stands up and says, : "Count me in. Let's get it on."
The U.S. presidency affords the biggest "bully pulpit" in the world. And a mean-spirited
partisan like Obama will repeatedly use it to attack rivals and any who disagree with his
dangerous leftist ideals. There was a day in America when simple respect for the office
dictated that one does not shout at the president. Presidential buffoonery by Carter, Nixon,
Clinton and their ilk have gone a long way toward eroding that unwritten protocol. But what
absolutely negates it is a president who seeks to establish a double standard by publicly
castigating his opponents, and then sulking when they return the favor because they have not
"respected his office." A successful Republican candidate can simply not yield this ground
to a partisan political hack like Obama. He hasn't earned deference through either his
performance or his character, and if he is allowed to hide behind his office like a
misbehaving child behind his mother's skirt, then he will likely be re-elected to continue
waging war on the Constitution and against the electorate. A weasel is a weasel is a weasel,
whatever his official title.
But the real enemy is division. Many like Donald Trump because of his outspokenness. But
if Trump fails to win the GOP nomination, and follows through on the suggestion that he
might run as an independent, one thing is 100% guaranteed. Barack Obama will be elected,
and America will forever regret it. It's high time for people who know the truth to come
together around the realization that united we stand, and divided we fall. The Republican
elephant would be a better president than Barack Obama, and if he's the one with the guts
to stand up and challenge The One, then we all need to get behind him. Let's keep our eye
on the ball.